1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a dual-stage microactuator, and more specifically to a microactuator with a remotely-located piezoelectric transducer (PZT) and an amplification structure amplifying the movement of the PZT to provide rotation of a tongue about a dimple on a head of the microactuator.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a hard disk drive assembly, dual-stage microactuators provide two areas of actuation, or movement, of a read/write head which permit the head to move from track to track over a platter on which data is stored. A finer level of movement is achieved at a tip of the head, or slider, usually as a result of a piezoelectric transducer (PZT) mechanism. Activation of the PZT is translated into movement of the slider, and this permits finer movement across tracks on the platter, which allows tracks to be spaced closer together, thus enabling more data to be stored on a platter.
However, movement of the PZT and the structures which translate the PZT movement to the slider also create vibration of the microactuator, which causes latency, or delays in the movement of the head from track to track. If the head doesn't properly read the track, it must wait for the platter to spin around another revolution before it can attempt to read the correct track again. This latency thus results in slower speeds when reading and writing data to the hard disk drive, which slows the overall computing process. Vibration and movement is also translated from the PZT away from the head and back to the base of the microactuator, which again degrades the read/write speed of the hard disk drive.